1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a customer call routing menu employing an interactive voice response (IVR) system.
2. Acronyms
The written description provided herein contains acronyms which refer to various telecommunications services, components and techniques, as well as features relating to the present invention. Although some of these acronyms are known, use of these acronyms is not strictly standardized in the art. For purposes of the written description herein, acronyms will be defined as follows:    Automatic Number Identification (ANI)    Customer Task Frequency (CTF)    Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF)    Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
3. Description of Background Information
Many companies incorporate IVR call management systems in order to handle and route incoming telephone calls. This is especially true within customer service centers, also known as customer call centers, of companies. Typically, the IVR system plays an audible menu to the caller providing messages consisting of call routing options. The caller is then prompted to select from the call routing options. Often, the IVR system includes a main menu and one or more sub-menus. A caller is then required to navigate through the various levels of menus to reach a customer service representative that may provide assistance.
Until now, the IVR call management menus have been designed from a business-centric standpoint. That is, the design of IVR menus has been in part based upon the subjective judgment and experience of those persons directly involved in the management of customer service centers. Their perspective is, quite naturally, oriented towards the organization and how the people within the organization will assist the customer. For example, menu message options have been structured using corporate department designations, e.g., billing department, repair group, etc. The order in which the departments are arranged in the menu may be influenced by a variety of factors including company hierarchy. As a result, callers may have to listen to many, if not all, of the menu message options before deciding upon an option to select. In some instances, the caller makes an incorrect selection and is routed to a service representative not able to assist them in accomplishing their task. This leads to caller dissatisfaction and frustration, as well as the added cost of transferring the call to the appropriate service representative.
Some IVRs customize the menu for a particular caller, using for instance, automatic number identification (ANI). One example of an IVR system that uses ANI to identify the caller and individualize the menu was presented by POLCYN et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,433. However, POLCYN et al., has many drawbacks, particularly with respect to customer service centers of telecommunications carriers. The nature of customer service centers for telecommunications carriers is not well suited to individualizing the menu for a particular caller because customer service centers for telecommunications carriers receive few repeat callers. Moreover, callers that do call back are usually calling for reasons unrelated to the previous call, e.g., to request a different service. Furthermore, individualizing the menu based upon a particular caller requires extra processing and places additional demands upon the system.
It has been observed that most customers call a customer service center number with a specific task in mind, not an organizational unit. As a result, it would be desirable to have a customer-centric IVR for call management that improves customer satisfaction. The present invention overcomes the problems associated with the prior art.